Our neighbour told us today that she is having a fence erected between our drives in three weeks time.We do not want this as it will make getting into and out of our garage problematic.Appreciate we can't stop her from having a fence her side but am I right in thinking that 100% of the fence posts must be on her side if we don't give permission for them to be on our side?Also there is a shared manhole cover in the divide between the drives. Am I right in thinking it is illegal to build a fence over this manhole?Would appreciate any thoughts on thisThanks

We both have a drive down to our garages which are semi-detached. The boundary line appears to be in the middle of the two garages. Our title deed shows us as being responsible for maintaining the boundary. When we moved here we took the fence down with the permission of the chap who lived next door who has subsequently left. This lady now wants to put a fence back.

However I will research what you said about being able to open our car door and see if we can get anywhere with that.

If she owns her drive outright, she can put a fence up wholly on her land provided it doesn't contravene planning regulations regarding a) an open-plan estate (I assume that doesn't apply in this case), andb) the height of fences near to a highway (usually 2m high is OK unless it is within 2m of a highway, in which case the height limit is only 1m)

Obviously, she will need to make provision in the design of the fence to allow adequate access to the shared manhole.

Why would a fence make it difficult for you to get in and out of your garage?

Her putting a fence up would narrow the space in which we have to back out of our garage. There is no fence at present and we have more room to manoeuvre. Once she puts the fence up it will be much tighter. (There was a fence when we bought this house but we took it down with permission of the chap that used to live next door)

I appreciate she has the right to put up the fence but just wanted confirmation that it had to be wholly on her side as she's talking about putting it 50/50 down the dividing line which obviously we do not want.

Her fence goes on her land full stop. Make sure this happens. The face of the posts facing towards you can only abut the boundary line and that is something she has to agree with you or enter into a dispute - Fence erection should cease at this moment until resolution.

If a fence was there when you moved in, had it been there since ther houses were built? If you live on an estate, did other houses have similar fences? If they don't/didn't, do your deeds make any reference to rights over the drives.

I looked at a building plot some years ago. The PP required a drive at least 3 metres wide, which made the remaining width too narrow for the house we wanted to build. I understand that supermarket parking bays must be 2 metres wide.

Does the new lady have a car? Could she be making a rod for her own back?

Just taken a lovely walk in the sunshine to look at the houses similar to ours. About 80% of them have a fence in between and about 20% have taken down the fence. No the lady doesn't have a car I think she just wants to make it more private.

We'll have to concede on this one but am quite concerned to protect our boundary whoever her contractors are will have to agree the boundary line with us and ensure that 100% of the fence is on her side.

we are a bit miffed though that a date has been agreed for someone to come and do this work but she did not see fit to include us in the negotiations of a mutually suitable time and date. Almost as if she thinks she has the right to instruct her contractors to come onto our drive without our permission. Blooming cheek!

so any benefit your property enjoyed - ie. swing room - will cease to be when the fence goes up.

had your property enjoyed such benefit for +20 years without permission then you could have claimed a legal interest - a prescriptive easement - had arisen, and that a fence would interfere with said legal interest.

7 years is not long enough though.

what she does with her property is none of your business, so although you feel a bit miffed she will be unaware.

Quite agree what she does on her pwn property is her business and vice-versa.

However, if it had been me I would have knocked on her door and told her the day, date and time the contractors were coming and asked if that was convenient for her and also asked if it was okay for them to go onto her side of the drive to do any necessary work. Shes just expecting me to fall in with her plans and assumed I give permission for them to go onto our side. I still don't know exactly when they're coming. Must speak to her again today.

I'm not going to get silly about this of course I'll give permission but I would have liked a little consideration from her.

Just spoke to Developer Services via Anglian Water. Apparently you can erect a fence over a shared manhole cover. Seems like madness to me but apparently a person's right to a boundary takes precedence over access to the sewer. They said if needs be they would get the barrier down.